Sean Everitt admits adjusting to the weather could be the hardest thing for his players to get used to after arriving in South Africa.
Edinburgh face Stormers on Saturday before then taking on Sharks a week later and Everitt has taken his travelling squad to Cape Town, with just Sam Skinner and Ben Healy available for this weekend’s game from the Scotland squad.
Edinburgh did beat Sharks – then coached by Everitt – in March 2022 in South Africa but it’s rare for the Northern Hemisphere teams to get a result away from home against them.
Everitt is confident his side can beat anyone on their day though but confessed that the change to the weather from Scotland to South Africa might be the most difficult thing for everyone involved.
But no matter what the result is, the 53-year-old reckons the trip will be great for his squad because it allows them to bond even more with each other and continue to build relationships.
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He said: “We spoke about it last night and had a good chat in the team room about that. It’s not often you get away like this.
“The South African teams tend to go away for four weeks at a time and you tend to build a lot of relationships when you’re away from home and spending so much time together.
“It’s a great opportunity for us and the players are really relishing that over the next two weeks. When they’re not training the guys are getting out and getting a coffee together.
“Sometimes there’s rugby chat which is good for us as coaches but generally just feeling the love of one another like brothers is important. We all know it’s a team sport and you all need to play for each other. So the stronger those relationships are the better.
“Coming to Cape Town is always a difficult task as Stormers have done exceptionally well here over the last two campaigns. They rarely lose at the DHL Stadium. They’re a very good team that’s also grown depth over their squad.
“Bringing our team here, like any northern hemisphere team, is always a challenge. But the belief is there.
“Edinburgh got a win over the Sharks here two years ago and the Ospreys got a win over the Lions at Ellis Park several weeks ago. So there’s a bit of belief building that teams can be beaten in South Africa and that’s a mindset we’ve got to take over these two games.
“If we look at the past games, the northern hemisphere teams have found it hard to win here. So we have to get the players to believe. We’ve had two games at home against South African teams and on their day we can beat any of them.
“We beat the Bulls who are on fire at the moment but have to believe we can also beat these teams away from home. Edinburgh had a taste of success before and it’s still spoken about as I was a coach at the Sharks at the time!
“Secondly there’s the climate. There’s a vast difference between playing in Scotland at this time of year and playing in the hot sun. If we look at the weather for Saturday it doesn’t look too bad but it’s about us getting used to the conditions.”
Skinner and Healy are the only two Scotland players who will be available for selection this weekend while the others will be allowed to play in the second match of the tour.
Everitt admits he’d like others but he can understand why they haven’t been released to play just yet because of how busy they had it during the Guinness Six Nations with Scotland.
He added: “The majority of our Scotland internationals will be available for the second game. Unfortunately for us now all of them have been released but rightfully so. They’ve had a busy Six Nations, one of their closest competitions for many years.
“They deserve a rest and at Edinburgh we respect the pressures that are on our international players. We’ve got a guy like Ewan Ashman who has come out here with us.
“He is available to play but I understand he’s had a really busy six weeks away from home so he will be resting this week. We just want to give them every opportunity to be back on the song for the rest of the season.”
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